Mining machine having a wedging thrusting action



y 1957 D. HAGENBOOK 2,792,205

MINING MACHINE HAVING A WEDGING THRUSTING ACTION Filed June 23, 1954 3-Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY May 14, 1957 L. DNHAGENBOOK 2,792,205

MINING MACHINE HAVING A WEDGING THRUSTING ACTION Filed June 23, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 52') 7 I; H x ii- I- I C 4o 45- 45 I 5 F1 3 INVENTOR.

' I OY D. HAG ENBO OK ATTORNEY MINING MACHINE HAVING A WEDGING THRUSTING ACTION Loy D. Hagenbook, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Goodman Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Application June 23, 1954, Serial No. 438,782

3 Claims. (Cl. 262-16) This invention relates to improvements in mining apparatus, and more particularly relates to improvements in machines for mining coal by attacking the coal with a wedging thrusting action.

In mining with picking or wedging types of mining machines, the attempt has been made to wedge or shear the coal in such a manner as to provide a relatively straight vertical face.

This is attained by feeding or thrusting the wedges or picks directly into the coal face. With such a method of attack of the coal face the feeding of the wedge or pick into the coal face builds up extremely high stresses at the extreme ends of the wedging or punching strokes and causes binding of the wedge or pick, due to the inability of the wedge or pick to free itself at the end of the stroke. Due to these high thrusts and resultant stresses, such machines have never come into general operation and have only been used in scattered installations with mediocre commercial success.

It has been found by experiment that when cutting into a homogeneous material by a thrusting wedging action directly into the material, as in cutting into a coal face at right angles with respect to the face, that the coal or material cut will fail on a 45 line with respect to the direction of thrust. This is due to the fact that with such a material, the forces of tension and compression are always at right angles with respect to each other and the maximum shear stress of the coal is always on a 45 line. Thus when cutting into a straight face with wedges or picks, the wedges or picks are continually fighting the corners at the ends of their strokes, which is a principal cause of the high stresses encountered in picking types of mining machines cutting directly into the coal face.

It has further been found that if the angle of the pick to the coal face is approximately 45 with respect to the coal face that the coal will shear along this line and that the wedges or picks will always break into clearance with each other and that the tremendous high stresses encountered near the end of a straight-end stroke are eliminated, by providing, in effect, an open side for the coal to break into.

It is accordingly an object of my invention to improve upon the prior pick or wedging types of mining machines by providing a novel and improved apparatus for cutting coal with a wedging or picking actionin which the line of the wedging force is at such an angle with respect tes Patent to" the'coal face as to continually break off the coal along I its normal line of failure.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a more eflicient apparatus for cutting coal with a wedging action' by initially attacking the coal adjacent the mine floor and working from the floor to the roof in a series of progressive steps, receding from the initial point of attack adjacent the floor in the gene'ralform of an arc and breaking the coal down at angles ofapproximately' '-with respect to lines drawn tangent to the locus of the wedges QlijPiCkS at the ends ofthe picking strokes thereof. 'A'further object of my invention is to provide a; more 2,792,205 Patented May 14,.

efficient apparatus for mining coal with a picking action by attacking the coal along lines at angles of substantially 45" with respect to the coal face from the mine floor to the mine roof and providing a progressively receding coal face from the floor to the motto continually prvide an open side for the coal to break into.

Another object of my invention is to provide a simple and improved form of coal mining machine supporting a reciprocating wedge or pick to cut in vertically spaced relation with respect to the ground and so constructed and arranged as to progressively feed the wedge or pick from the mine floor to the mine roof and maintain the wedge in position to exert a thrusting action into the coalface along a line of 45 to a line drawn tangent to the locus of the points of the wedge at the ends of the wedging strokes thereof.

A further and more detailed object of my invention is to provide a simplified and improved form of apparatus for cutting coal with a wedging action in which a support pivoted adjacent the ground supports a wedge 01. pick in spaced relation with respect to the ground in position to exert a thrusting wedging action on the coal face at an angle of 45 to a line drawn normal to a radius passing through the axis of pivotal movement of the support and intersecting the ends of the wedge at the ends of the picking strokes thereof, throughout the entire range of vertical movement thereof from a mine floor to a mine roof.

These and other objects of my invention will appear from time to time as a following specification proceeds and with reference to the accompanying drawings where- Figure 1 is a fragmentary generally diagrammatic side, elevational view of a mining machine constructed to carry out the method of my invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary generally diagrammatic plan view of the machine shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail fragmentary view in side elevation of a portion of the support and mechanism for actuating the wedge, showing the cylinder and piston for the wedge in section and;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along line IV-IV of Figure 3 and drawn to substantially the same scale as Figure 3.

In the embodiment of my invention illustrated in the drawings, I have shown generally in Figures 1 and 2 a mining machine 10 of a picking or wedging type supported on laterally spaced continuous traction tread devices 11, 11 and having a transverse wedge or pick 23. The traction tread devices 11, 11 are each guided for movement about a tread frame 12, and may be of any well known construction, so need not herein be shown or described further.

The tread frames 12, 12 and treads 11, 11 guided thereabout, extend along opposite sides of a main frame 15 and form a mobile support for said main frame. The main frame 15 is shown as having a conveyor 16 extending therealong for conveying material loaded thereon for discharge onto a suitable material transporting means, such as a conveyor, a mine car or the like.

Gathering devices 17, 17 are shown as extending along opposite sides of the conv eyor 16 and forwardly therefrom for loading the coal mined by thewedge 23 onto said conveyor. The gathering devices 17, 17 are shown as extending downwardly along an inclined apron 19 and beyond the forward end thereof in generally parallel relation with respect to the ground.

The gathering devices 17, 17 are of a well known form so need-hot herein be shown or described further and con-sist'g'en'erally in :a pair of cutter bars -2t), -20.'extend'- ing 'a'lon'g and forwardly of theapron 19,..and positioning cutter bitcarryingcut'ter blocks 21', 21 tonndercutthe coal face and to load out the material broken down by the thrusting wedge or pick 23. The cutter bars 20, are shown as having cutter chains 24, 24 guided for movement thereabout in the usual manner.

In the form of my invention shown in Figure 2, the cutter bars are wider at their forward ends than their rear ends. The inner reaches of the chains 24, 24 and cutter blocks 21, 21 thus approach each other fairly closely in advance of the forward end of the apron 19, but recede laterally from each other as they approach the conveyor 16, and extend along opposite sides of the conveyor, 16. to progress the coal thereon, as shown in Patent Number 2,329,875 which issued to Frank Cartlidge on September 21, 1943.

The transverse wedge 23 is shown as being reciprocably supported on a vertically movable support 25, shown as being pivotally mounted on the main frame 15 inwardly of the tread frames 12 on laterally spaced pivot pins 26, extending transversely of the main frame 10 and located closely adjacent the ground (see Figure l). The pivot pins 26 are so located as to position the wedge 23 to thrust into the coal at an acute angle to a line drawn tangent to the locus of said wedge in the extreme extended positions of said wedge as it progressively operates from the mine fioor to the mine roof.

While the support frame is herein shown as being pivoted to the main frame it should be understood that it need not be pivoted, but may be movably mounted on the main frame in any well known manner, to position the wedge 23 for cutting adjacent the ground and to progressively move the wedge to cut at an angle of 45 to a line drawn tangent to the locus of the point of the wedge or pick 23, when in its extreme extended cutting positions.

The support frame 25 is shown as having two parallel spaced generally triangular support legs 27, 27 each of which extends along the inside of a tread frame 12. The support legs 27, 27 are shown as being arranged with their apices adjacent the ground and their bases in vertically spaced relation with respect to the ground. A cross frame or bridge 29 which may be formed integrally therewith connects the legs 27, 27 together. The cross frame 29 has spaced recessed guides 30, 3%) extending therealong longitudinally of the machine. The guides 30, 3t) are of a generally dove tail formation and slidably receive corresponding dove tail guide members 31, 31 depending from the bottom of a transverse support plate or slide 32 forming a support for the wedge 23.

The plate or slide 32 is shown as having'a dove tail recess or groove 33 extending thereacross forwardly of the guide member 31 and receiving a transverse dove tail projection 34 projecting upwardly from the face of the wedge 23 and held in position with respect thereto as by machine screws 38, 38 extending through the slide 32 and threaded within said wedge.

The wedge 23 is shown as being in the form of a fiat plate having an arcuate face receding from the center thereof and having wedge shaped picks or teeth 35, 35 spaced therealong. The teeth 35 are generally flat along their top surfaces and are inclined rearwardly and downwardly from the advance edges thereof, providing wedge shaped bottom faces 36, sharpened at their ends for cutting into and breaking down the coal upon movement of the wedge 23 toward the coal face.

The wedge 23 is shown as being moved toward the coal face to thrust the picks or teeth 35, 35 therein as by spaced cylinders 37, 37 and pistons 39, 39. The cylinders 37, 37 are suitably secured to and extend along the upper surfaces of the support arms 27, 27. Each piston 39 is shown as having a piston rod 40 connected thereto and extending forwardly therefrom through a piston rod end 41 of the cylinder 37. The outer end of each piston rod 40 is shown as being flattened as indicated by reference character 43 and as extending within spaced cars 44, 44 dependingfrom the bottom pivot pins 45, 45.

Thus when the support frame 25 is held stationary and fluid under pressure is admitted to the head ends of the cylinders 37, the support plate 29, wedge 23 with its picks or teeth 35 will be advanced along the guides 30 for thrusting the picks 35 directly into the coal face in an obvious manner. The picks or teeth 35 are like wise retraced from the coal face by the admission of fiuid under pressure to the piston rod ends of the cylinders 37, 37.

Spaced cylinders 47, 47 and pistons 49, 49 are shown as being provided to vertically feed the support 25 about its axis of connection to the pins 26. As herein shown, the support arms 27 each have spaced lugs 50, 50 extending rearwardly therefrom, between which extends an ear 51 projecting from the head end of a cylinder 47, and pivotally connected thereto as by a transverse pivot pin 53. A piston rod 54 as shown as extending from the opposite end of each cylinder 47 from the car 51 and as being pivotally connected between spaced lugs 55 projecting upwardly from the main frame 15 adjacent the rear ends of the tread devices 11. A separate pivot pin 56 is provided to pivotally connect each piston rod to its associated lugs.

It is obvious from the foregoing that upon the admission of fluid under pressure to the head end of the cylinder 57, the support 25 will be pivoted about the axis of the pins 26, 26 to position the wedge/23 and teeth 35 thereof adjacent the ground at an angle with respect to the coal face, and that the said wedge may be held in any desired position by the holding of fluid under pressure in the cylinder 47. In a contrary manner the support 25 and wedge 23 may be progressively advanced from the floor to the roof by the admission of fluid under pressure to the piston rod ends of the cylinders 47.

Fluid under pressure may be supplied to and released from and held in the respective cylinders 47, 47 and 37, 37 under the control of suitable valves, which may be of any well known form and are no part of my present invention so need not be shown or described herein. The machine may also be provided with a fluid storage tank and pump driven by a suitable motor (not shown) which may also be the motor which propels the machine, drives the conveyor and drives the gathering chains 24 about the cutter arms 20, 20 in a manner such as is shown in the aforementioned patent to Frank Cartlidge No. 2,329,875 and no part of my present invention, so not herein shown or described.

It may be seen with reference to Figure 1, that as the cutter 23 is progressively fed upwardly from the mine floor to the mine roof that the tips of the teeth 35 subscribe a locus in the general form of an arc, the points of which are indicated by the reference character A in the fully retracted position of said teeth and by reference character B in the fully extended position of said teeth, the distance from A to B representing the coal broken down upon each stroke of the wedge 23.

It may further be seen that the support 25 is so mounted and the coal face is so broken down that the points of the teeth 35 always enter the face at an angle with respect thereto, which is 45 to a line drawn tangent to the locus of the points B in all positions of advance of the picking teeth from the mine fioor to the mine roof. The coal is thus broken from the face in a space of substantially 135 with respect to the angle of inclination of the wedge 23 as it enters the coal face and providing a relatively smooth generally arcuate face receding toward the machine from the mine floor to the mine roof.

of feeding means. The machine may then be jacked or otherwise secured into position adjacent the face with the cutter bars and chains within the kerf cut thereby. The cutter chains 21, 21 may then continue in operation to perform a loading function and load the mined coal onto the conveyor 16. Fluid under pressure may then be admitted to the head ends of the cylinders 47, 47 to position the forwardmost teeth 35 adjacent the coal face at the lowermost point A. Fluid under pressure may then be held in the cylinders 47 to hold the support frame 25 and wedge 23 in the position shown by the broken lines in Figure 1.

Fluid under pressure may then be admitted to the head ends of the cylinders 37, 37 to advance the wedge 23 and teeth 35 into the coal face along an angle of 45 with respect thereto and the line of greatest weakness of the coal. This will break the coal down onto the ground between the cutter bars 20, 20 for gathering by the cutter chains 21, 21, it being understood that the cutter chains may also scrape any coal from the cutter bars that may lodge thereon. The wedge 23 may then be retracted and the support 25 advanced upwardly to the second position A and the foregoing breaking or cutting operation may be repeated.

The cutting operation may then be progressively repeated from the floor to the roof, each time breaking the coal E along its line of greatest weakness, and cut-ting a generally arcuate face receding toward the machine as the face advances toward the mine roof, and so breaking off the coal that the teeth 35, 35 cut clearance for themselves during each picking operation and thus entirely to eliminating binding of the teeth and the tremendously high stresses heretofore encountered at the end of the wedging strokes where the wedge is forced straight into the coal as commonly practiced in prior continuous mining with wedges or picks.

It will be understood that modifications and variations in this invention may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts thereof.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a coal mining machine, the main frame, a support pivotally mounted on said main frame, power means for pivotally moving said support with respect to said main frame in a vertical direction, a slide reciprocably mounted on said support, power means for reciprocably moving said slide with respect to said support, a wedge carried by said slide and projecting forwardly therefrom and having a plurality of laterally spaced wedging teeth extending thereacross, said support being so mounted on said main frace as to progress said wedge from a mine floor to mine roof and to maintain said wedge to advance from the floor to the roof along a receding path with respect to a transverse vertical plane in advance of said main frame and to present said wedge at angles of with respect to lines drawn tangent to the locus of said wedges at the end of its wedging strokes in all positions of feeding movement thereof from the mine floor to the mine roof.

2. In a coal mining machine, a mobile main frame, a support pivotally mounted on said main frame for movement about a transverse axis disposed adjacent the ground and projecting upwardly therefrom, power means for pivoting said support and holding said support in position with respect to the ground, a wedge carried by said support for reciprocable movement with respect thereto and projecting beyond the forward end thereof, power means for reciprocably moving said wedge toward and from a coal face, the pivot for said support being. so located with respect to said main frame as to maintain said wedge to enter the coal face at angles of 45 to lines drawn normal to radial lines passing through the pivotal axis of said support and intersecting the end of said Wedge in all positions of advance of said wedge from the mine floor to the mine roof.

3. In a coal mining machine, a mobile main frame, a support movably mounted on said main frame and comprising two spaced vertically extending legs pivotally connected to said main frame and supported thereby for movement about a transverse axis disposed adjacent the ground, a slide slidably guided between said arms for reciprocable movement with respect to said main frame, spaced fluid pressure cylinders and pistons for reciprocably moving said slide, a wedge carried by said slide and extending thereacross, spaced fluid pressure cylinders and pistons connected between said main frame and legs for maintaining such support in position and pivotally moving said support about said pivotal axis, the axis of pivotal movement of said support being so arranged with respect to the ground as to maintain said wedge in position to attack the coal face along a line of 45 to a line drawn normal to a radial line extending through the axis of said support and intersecting the end of said wedge in all positions of advance of said support and wedge from the mine floor to the mine roof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,127,395 Bemies Feb. 9, 1915 2,329,875 Cartlidge Sept. 21, 1943 2,614,822 Miller Oct. 21, 1952 2,636,722 Fielding Apr. 28, 1953 

